Abstract The purpose of the seventh Annual American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon) Conference is to provide an opportunity for a large community of health economists, health services researchers, and health policy researchers to gather and present research, exchange ideas, gain new skills, and learn about current policy issues in the field. While we believe the 2018 ASHEcon conference will contain aspects touching on all four types of conference priorities highlighted by AHRQ, ours is primarily a research development conference. The conference objectives are as follows: 1) To offer members of the health economics and health policy community in academics, government, contract research organizations, and industry an opportunity to present and discuss high quality studies representing new, rigorous, innovative research in important areas of health economics in an intensive large conference setting. The central component of the conference is the dissemination of cutting edge, policy relevant research. Many of the research papers that will be presented at the seventh annual ASHEcon conference will focus on health and health care disparities, as well as AHRQ priority populations. 2) To foster the development and implementation of methodologically rigorous approaches in the study of policy significant empirical health economics and policy research. 3) To provide workshops to enhance the empirical skills and capabilities of health economists and related researchers as well as to aide students in skill-development, and to facilitate the career development of the next generation of health economic scholars through career development activities and awards across the career spectrum. 4) To provide opportunities for health economists and the health policy community to engage with one another and network to create, develop and foster connections for future research collaborations. Anticipated outcomes include improved research through the exchange of new study findings, dissemination of cutting- edge methods and crosscutting research ideas, better health policies, and the development of the next generation of health economics and health policy researchers. The conference provides significant time for networking and fostering collaboration among researchers. Evaluations of past ASHEcon conferences indicate high marks on all of these dimensions. Organized around the general theme of ?Economics and Public Health,? the aims of the conference are consistent with the mission of AHRQ stated in PA-13-017 for large conference grants ?to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans? and AHRQ?s goal of supporting conferences contributing to the dissemination of research findings, to research design and methodology, and to research training, infrastructure, and career development. 1